Renaming SoMa street after Jeff Adachi an honor to some, a headache for others

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi stands in his in San Francisco, Calif., office on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. He died in February.

Photo: Kim Komenich / The Chronicle

A proposal to rename a small South of Market street after late Public Defender Jeff Adachi drew supporters to City Hall on Monday, but also a few of the street’s residents who said the name change would cause them a major headache.

The Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee unanimously passed a resolution that would allow the city to begin the process of renaming Gilbert Street, which runs parallel to Sixth and Seventh streets between Bryant and Brannan near the public defender’s office, to Jeff Adachi Way.

If the board approves the resolution next week, the city can then begin the long process of officially renaming the street. One of the first steps will be surveying all the businesses and residents on the street. Then the board would vote on it again.

Supervisor Matt Haney, sponsor of the resolution, said renaming the street after Adachi — who unexpectedly died in February — will have a “positive impact to our community for decades to come.” He chose Gilbert Street because that’s the street Adachi used to walk between his office and courthouse at 850 Bryant St.

A few Gilbert Street residents at the meeting said they were peeved at how much time and effort it would take to change the name on all of their paperwork, from electric bills to passports and immigration papers.

“Think of everything you need to update when you change your credit card, and triple that,” said Brendan Grant, 36, who has owned a home on Gilbert Street for about six years.

But many more at the meeting supported the change, saying it was a small way to honor a man who had a big impact on the city.

“Every individual who knows Jeff has a story of what he has done for the community,” said Misha Olivas, program director of United Playaz, a SoMa youth development organization. “This is the very least that we can do for him and all he gave to everyone in San Francisco.”

After the meeting, Haney said he would consider just renaming the block between Bryant and Brannan Streets, a move that he said would likely impact fewer residents and businesses.

If the board passes the resolution after a final vote, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency would be directed to install a new street sign that says “Jeff Adachi Way” and place it above a smaller sign that says “Gilbert Street” for five years.

After that period, the street would be officially renamed Jeff Adachi Way.

Trisha Thadani is a City Hall reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. She previously covered work-based immigration and local startups for the paper’s business section.

Thadani graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism. Before joining The Chronicle, she held internships at The Boston Globe, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and was a Statehouse correspondent for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.